Prague, Jan 1 (CTK) – The salaries of doctors and nurses in a majority of Czech hospitals go up as from yesterday, but not all facilities will raise the pay by 10 percent as approved by the government, and employees in culture will also get more money.
The salaries of the civil servants, firefighters, soldiers and police went up in November already and in September, teachers and non-pedagogic employees in regional educational facilities had their salaries raised.
The government decided about most pay rises shortly before the regional and Senate elections last October, which the opposition criticised as populism with which the government parties want to gain voter support.
The minimum pay rose by 110 to 11,000 crowns gross per month.
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) has set further growth in the minimum wage and the salaries of public sector employees as one of the government’s goals this year.
He also wants to press on the private sector. He says the wages in the sector are too low.
Doctors and nurses had to wait for a higher pay until January 2017 as from when a new decree on payments for treatments takes effect.
Some hospitals say the rises in the payments will not suffice to raise the staff’s salaries by 10 percent.
The Culture Ministry’s budget for this year is the highest in the post-communist era. In addition, it got 200 million crowns for 10 percent pay rises.
($1=24.820 crowns)
